Christmas: Only marred by Classic Crime and snowplows

All in all, a very good Christmas.
Except for arriving home and finding the snow plows had FINALLY cleared the snow off our streets.
And then pushed it all in front of our driveway.
No joke.
Every other driveway in the cul-de-sac was clear...except for ours.
Right. Thanks, guys. Merry Christmas!
Morons.
Maybe it was someone we know...but who did we tick off?
Boycott love...detox just to retox.
Heheh, I actually got stuff I wanted, and some surprises that were welcomed.
"ACROSS THE UNIVERSE" SOUNDTRACK!!
I hate the Beatles...but I love their music.
Does that make sense?
Ugh, Classic Crime.
The Silver Cord sucks. Albatross was pretty cool, not exactly new or hardhitting, but a nice semi-indie band with a great frontman. And hey, they were from Seattle! Kudos!
And then people (possibly over-excited Christian music fans who would gobble up anything with clean lyrics and possible Christian members, and/or Tooth and Nail execs) started telling this band how much they loved them, how cool they were, and how "edgy" and "hardcore" their music was.
And then the Classic Crime took all these comments super seriously and spent a couple years writing songs for their new album.
And these songs seem like the writers were trying REALLY hard to be "edgy", "hardcore", and "obscure".
Sadly, ALL THE SONGS SOUND THE SAME!!
Fall Out Boy's new album was a little weird at first listening, but at least every track had something different.
Listening to "The Silver Cord" was like slogging through an hour's worth of pain, misery, and angst.
The only exception was "5805", which was quirky and pretty unique, up until the chorus.
The melody of "5805" and "Salt in the Snow" are identical.
I no longer support you, Matt McDonald.

White-coated ninja stalks at night

It's 35 degrees outside, which is supposedly WARMER than the past few days, but the weathermen neglected to tell us all about the wind chill factor.
So, in actuality, it's 5 degrees outside.
Is it really that weird to be able to drink a milkshake in snowy weather? Hot cocoa just isn't the same.
Francesca Lia Block keeps blowing me away. "Necklace of Kisses" is somehow better than "Baby Be-Bop", the best of the Weetzie Bat books.
AND THEY'RE MAKING A MOVIE!
We got at least 3 more inches of snow, and it's been snowing off and on (but it's also been raining and sleeting, so the chances of us getting any more snow today are low).
Church has been cancelled - again.
That's twice this week. GET BEHIND ME, SATAN! I have Jesus on my side!!
And Meg and Jack White, but they don't count nearly as much.
It doesn't seem like Christmas Eve, but it most definitely is. We couldn't wait till this evening, so the 5 of us got up early and opened our presents.
Aha, I have cellphone!! Finally!!
And it's green.
Someone made a book of some of the best lolcatz. It's pretty funny.
Halp! I'm in ur cupz...soaking up your teaz.
I also got "Folie a Deux" and "The Silver Cord" - at last.
"Folie a Deux" is pretty good. Yes, that's the extent of my musical commentary. Because saying, "Oh my gosh, Patrick has SUCH an amazing voice and Joe is SOOOO good at guitar and that one song was AWESOME!" seems to carry just about as much meaning.
I'm pretty musically retarded.
Or at least musically close-minded.
Or close-minded in general. Hey, Republican.

Even if school is cancelled, they'll still have 0 Hour.

Huh. It's snowing. Rather hard, actually. We have at least 4 inches.
It looks like Matt was right. After I made fun of his predictions all yesterday.
My apologies, Matt.
But it's snowing, and it's all beautiful and magical and Christmas-y. Eeeeee...
I love snow. Especially during December.
Does anyone else feel like Christmas is coming rather fast? Alvin and the Chipmunks don't seem to think so, but since that annoying animated film, they can't exactly be trusted.
Just seems weird.
Hopefully school isn't cancelled tomorrow.
It was GREAT that it was cancelled today, no lie, but I was really looking forward to seeing my friends tomorrow.
Yeah, we're going to hang out over break, but tomorrow is technically the last day I'll see them.
:(
Sugar cookies!
And the best cup of hot chocolate EVER.

Your Christmas is Classic

Your wish for the New Year is more happiness. For you, Christmas is a spiritual holiday. You can't separate it from your beliefs. You are patient when it comes to Christmas. You don't celebrate too early, and you don't like seeing holiday decorations in October. You like to have an authentic, traditional Christmas. Doing it the old fashioned way is important to you. You have some preferred ways of celebrating Christmas, but you're open to compromise. You are too busy to really get into Christmas, but you try to do a little to celebrate. You give a big during the holidays but nowhere near as much as you'd like to.

What Does Your Christmas Say About You?

This article is pure genius and basically summarizes the entire Twilight series.

I want to wash my hair in snow

Shampoo works better, but that's okay.
I woke up this morning to a beautiful snowy neighborhood. The view out my window looked like a Thomas Kinkaid painting.
Did anyone else have a psycho 4th grade teacher who LOVED Thomas Kinkaid and forced her students to copy his paintings?
Wasn't it so lame that if you didn't make your painting look EXACTLY like his, you got a low grade?
Sorry SOME of us aren't as artistically talented as others.
And this man has been painting forever. It's not like a couple 4th graders are going to do a perfect job of copying his paintings.
"I've only seen paintings of this painting!"
So yeah, I'm not bitter or anything.
But anyway, as sinful as it sounds, I really DID NOT want to go to church today, and was convinced that the snow meant there would BE no church.
But no. There was church. The snow was just a ruse.
Sigh.
Then we were at a family Christmas party up on Fox Island and it started snowing really heavily and William and I were so PUMPED. NO SCHOOL TOMORROW!!! WOOOO!!!
And then we got home and found all of OUR snow melted and gone.
The Suicide Hotline didn't answer my frantic phone call. How depressing.
Tie loved the snow, unlike Oggy, who detested it. She was frolicking around in the backyard, licking up mouthfuls and writing her name in colorful excrement.
I'm writing my English essay on the focus on male relationships in both "Night" and "Swing Kids". I hope Mr. Rosendale doesn't think I'm referring to homoerotic overtones scholars are so convinced they've found in other examples of literature, such as "Romeo and Juliet" (also titled "Romeo and Mercutio").
At least no one else will have done this topic.
But I might be surprised.
The family Christmas party wasn't so bad. Everyone spent a lot of time gazing adorably at baby Riley and there was a lot of good food.
I always feel out of place in our family, though. I'm thinking it's because of the dark hair. Almost everyone in my extended family (on my mom's side, anyway) has blonde hair and blue eyes, except for a few people only related by marriage. But they're all so perfect-Aryan and Scandinavian that I feel like hiding with my dark-haired father and siblings in a corner.
I feel like I've tainted the gene pool.
Actually, it's my dad who's tainted the gene pool.
And my relatives aren't pyscho Nazis, but I feel OUT OF PLACE. People can't tell I'm related to my mom, or my grandparents, or my cousins.
THEY'RE TRYING TO SET ME UP WITH MY SECOND COUSIN! At least I think he's my second cousin. Something like that.
I really hope they don't believe in arranged marriage.
Aaagh.
But if I did marry him, we probably shouldn't have kids.
They'll taint the gene pool.

The 12 Days Till Christmas

I was just thinking about it. A full set of Barbie movies would, sadly, be the best Christmas present ever.
"The Princess and the Pauper" brings back so many memories.
Tie's wearing her sweater. It's pretty cute.
Just not her color.
My grandparents took us to see the church's Christmas play last night, and it was really good. The scene about childhood toys was really sad, though. Who knew Brian could sing? And "Glitter" was cute. "THERE'S CHRISTMAS IN THE BATHROOM!"

Your Snow Test Says You're Independent

You feel like something good will happen to you in the next few months. You don't really like to work, unless work feels like play. You only are successful when you are doing what you love. You are an independent, individualistic person. You thrive when you're doing your own thing. Your biggest worry in your life is your financial security. You think about money a lot. When it comes time to relax, you have no problem letting go. You are already pretty relaxed as is!

The Snow Test

WOOHOO we beat Australia!! Take that, Aussies!
Kris spent 10 minutes talking to them with a fake Australian accent.
And they thought it was real.
Ugh, stupid weathermen. They've been predicting snow for days, but it's been getting warmer, not colder.
And now it's actually snowing, but they're only BABY flakes. Tiny, miniscule little flakes that wouldn't pose a threat to an ANT.
So much for that.
Pullman has more than a FOOT. So jealous.

I want to be forever young.

Aaargh I kind of hate that song. Whenever I hear it on Jack or something, I keep thinking of Mormon dances and Napoleon Dynamite.
A snow day!!! I was so convinced it wasn't going to be one (I've stopped looking out my window in case of disappointment). But it was. Yeaaaah.
I shouldn't be this excited, but I'm planning on making a new Sims 2 neighborhood full of Princess Diaries characters. Eeee. Sooo much drama. Only I'm not sure where everyone's going to live, because Mia has a million friends and I don't want to create individual families for all of them. I'm thinking JP, Ling Su, Perin, Lana, Josh, and Tina will all live with Principal Gupta.
At least I'm not making a Harry Potter neighborhood. Where would all the Weasleys live? Although Fred IS dead now, and Percy, Bill, and Charlie no longer live at home....
I just realized that George married Angelina, who I always thought would end up with Fred. Doesn't that make her off limits? No respect for the dead.

Not exactly a white Christmas, more of an off-white, or a cream

I love how it's been snowy since Christmas. It snowed practically all day yesterday.
Ew, yesterday = NOT FUN. I woke up with this stomach flu that my little brother had on Christmas Eve. Soooo nasty. I puked up a LOT of chocolate cake. And I had a fever of 100.7, which is fairly low considering the temps people sometimes get to (104.3?), but it was all hot despite the snow outside. I got to sleep a lot, though, and eat Ritz crackers, so that was okay.
And I'm suddenly all better now.
AAARGH, one thing I'm NOT better about was this episode on "Tyra" about Gaydar, and some supposedly "scientific tests" to see if you could tell if someone was gay. It was supposed to be about breaking down barriers and forgetting stereotypes, but I think it just made the stereotypes we have more obvious. Ugh, Tyra is SUCH an idiot. I thought being a talkshow host required a brain, but I guess not, because Rosie O'Donnell, Oprah, and Rachael Rae are sort of lacking in that department. Also, SHE'S A SUPERMODEL!! Aaagh, but it's like she has NO PEOPLE SKILLS!! And there was this one guy who everyone thought was gay because he fit the effeminate gay stereotypes (he was, but that's not the point), but he started talking and everyone started laughing at him, and Tyra was all, "Ha ha ha, we don't even have to guess on that one!" Who even says that?
So yeah.
"Stardust" is actually a super good movie. SOOOOO much better than the book. Tristan looks a lot better once Robert de Niro gets his hands on him.
Lol, I got my dad to buy me the Hannah Montana soundtrack. He had this karaoke version that he plays for his students sometimes, but the vocalist was SO OBVIOUSLY not Hannah Montana. It was like some 40-year-old woman. Ew.
Ew, there's a Jesse McCartney song on there.
B5's song didn't suck as much as I thought it would, but no one can beat Earth, Wind, and Fire.
"Pop Princess" is my new favorite song. POP PRINCESS, HOLD MY HAAAAND, POP PRINCESS, I'M A FAAAAAN!

"I'm glad that Bryce Larkin is dead...

...and isn't in my bedroom making out with my new girlfriend."
Ow, my hip hurts. I saw last Monday's episode of "Chuck" last night and it was really good. Bryce is really hot, and I wish he was in more than one episode. Besides the pilot. I hate Anna, though.
More books for the list.
10. "Dairy Queen" by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Summary: 15-year-old D. J. Schwenk joins the high school football team to her father's chagrin.
Lol, I love cows. And I was obsessed with Brian for a long time afterwards. The sequel, "The Off Season", is just as good, if not better.

11. "The Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot
Summary: Mia Thermopolis finds out her father is a prince, making her a princess, and learns to deal with the changes that follow.
The rest of the series sucks (it's really good up until #4. Or maybe #6, because #5 was pretty good.), but this book cracks me up. I want combat boots.

12. "Home of the Brave" by Katherine Applegate
Summary: Kek, a refugee from Sudan, comes to Minnesota to live with his aunt and cousin and learns growing up isn't always easy.
I just finished this book today, and it's written in poetry format, so it's a pretty quick read, and Kek is hilarious. Oh, and he likes cows.

Yeah, I'm a little obsessed. I read like 4 books today. We skipped church because it snowed again. But then the stupid rain came and had to wash it all away, so there's probably going to be school tomorrow. Aargh, I HATE Washington. HATE it. I'm either going to move somewhere where it doesn't rain or snow or somewhere that snows every day, but doesn't rain. Is that even possible?
Do do do do. Ugh, I reread "Avalon: Circles in the Stream" and it was a painful experience.
I think Family Force 5 counts as Christmas music.